Taddy Blasuziak Blasts His Way Through Hell’s Gate

KTM Factory rider Taddy Blasuziak of Poland put in a superb start-to-finish race on Saturday to take victory in the Hell's Gate Extreme Enduro event in Il Ciocco, in Italy's northern Tuscany.

Taddy, who has been making a huge impression on the international extreme Enduro calendar in the winter months in his first season as a fully-fledged KTM factory rider took the holeshot and led through the entire race. Going into the last lap, Britain's Graham Jarvis, riding a trial bike had narrowed the gap to the KTM extreme star to about one minute. Then Taddy turned up the gas and crossed the finish line with a very comfortable margin.

Taddy Blazusiak: "The race was really tough, but not as hard as Red Bull Last Man Standing. The main race went pretty much perfectly for me. I got the holdeshot and lead from start to finish. There were some tricky sections on the course but I didn't have any major problems. I think I had about a four minute lead at the end of the first lap, which was good. I took it fairly steadily on the second lap. At the end of the third lap I was told that I was less than two minutes ahead, so I went full gas all the way around the fourth and final lap. It's great to win."

Tom Sagar fourth KTM factory rider Tom Sagar finished fourth after a tough battle with third placed Paul Bolton. Cyril Despres, KTM Red Bull rally rider used Hell's Gate to keep his hand in after the disappointment of the cancellation of the Dakar Rally and finished in seventh place. U.S. MX KTM rider Mike Metzger got a taste of European riding in the morning but failed to qualify for the main event, which started at 3.00 p.m. and concluded about 30 minutes after nightfall.

Another trophy for Taddy's collection Taddy now adds the Hell's Gate trophy to his collection, which includes the victory in the Hare Scramble at the 2007 Erzberg Rodeo, a result that saw him elevated to factory rider status for KTM, the coveted Last Man Standing in Texas, victory in the final round of the AMA Endurocross series in Las Vegas and at the RodeoX Endurocross in Linz, Austria. The Polish rider also finished second overall behind the mighty Knighter (KTM's David Knight) in the just concluded 3-race series Enduro Indoor World Cup and in "The Tough One" in the UK in January.

Taddy, who has been away from Poland since December will now take a break from competition. He admitted that he was looking forward to resting his wrists, which he said had become sore during recent competition. Conditions for this year's Hell's Gate were tough. Unlike earlier years, the ground was not frozen and with rivers running low it the track surface was also dry and very hard.

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